John Elflein
Research expert covering health and health care
Workplace health and wellness in the U.S. - Statistics & Facts
In today’s fast paced work environment it is important for employees and employers alike to promote healthy working behaviors and surroundings. Healthy employees are more productive, have fewer absences and are less prone to work-related injury. It is therefore no surprise that in recent years, companies have put more effort into promoting healthy lifestyles among employees and reducing work-related stress, illness, and injury. However, a survey from 2023 found that only around a quarter of U.S. employees feel their organization cares about their wellbeing.
Occupational injury and death
Unsurprisingly, work-related physical injury deaths occur most commonly in professions dealing with heavy machinery and requiring strenuous physical activity, such as logging work, fishing, and structural iron and steel work. In 2021, there were around 5,190 deaths from occupational injury in the United States, with the largest portion involving those aged 55 to 64 years. However, in 2022, the highest number of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses in the United States occurred among those in health care and social assistance, followed by retail trade, and manufacturing. That year, there were around 665,300 incidents of nonfatal occupational injuries or illnesses recorded in the health care and social assistance sector.Health-related absence
Although all employees are prone to sickness, despite the strenuousness and hazardousness of their job, a large share of people in the United States do not actually take any sick days. Statista's global consumer survey from 2020 to 2023 found that roughly a third to a quarter of U.S. adults did not miss any work or school/university in the past 12 months due to ill health. Of those that did, 2-3 days was the most common number of sick days taken. The COVID-19 pandemic that hit the United States in March 2020 had an affect on seasonal health-related workplace absenteeism, with 2020 to 2022 seeing some of the highest rates of absenteeism in recent years. Another major cause for absenteeism is work-related stress which can impact workers' productivity and lead to burnout when it is not properly addressed and managed.Work-related stress
Some common factors contributing to stress at work include being overworked, a lack of work-life balance, and inadequate compensation. A survey of U.S. employees from 2023 found that around 22 percent reported their self-assessed level of burnout to be very high or high, while only 54 percent reported it to be low or very low. Such information has inspired more employers to provide employees with benefits and wellbeing programs to reduce stress. Some benefits that employees state they would like from their employer to help with their mental health are more time off, greater schedule flexibility, and workplace discussions about mental health. Larger companies are more likely to provide employees with such benefits with around a quarter of small firms stating that the cost of health insurance is too high for them to offer their employees health benefits.
